Medicine:Outline of emergency medicine

Short description: Overview of and topical guide to emergency medicine

The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to emergency medicine:

Emergency medicine – medical specialty involving care for undifferentiated, unscheduled patients with acute illnesses or injuries that require immediate medical attention. While not usually providing long-term or continuing care, emergency physicians undertake acute investigations and interventions to resuscitate and stabilize patients. Emergency physicians generally practice in hospital emergency departments, pre-hospital settings via emergency medical services, and intensive care units.

Presentations

• Abdominal pain
• Altered level of consciousness
• Back pain
• Chest pain
• Coma
• Confusion
• Constipation
• Cyanosis
• Diarrhea
• Dizziness
• Dyspnea
• Fever
• Gastrointestinal bleeding
• Headache
• Hemoptysis
• Jaundice
• Nausea and vomiting
• Pelvic pain
• Seizure
• Sore throat
• Syncope
• Testicular pain
• Vaginal bleeding
• Vertigo
• Weakness

Types of emergencies

Listed below are conditions that constitute a possible medical emergency and may require immediate first aid, emergency room care, surgery, or care by a physician or nurse. Not all medical emergencies are life-threatening; some conditions require medical attention in order to prevent significant and long-lasting effects on physical or mental health.

Blood

• Anemia
• Polycythemia
• Acute promyelocytic leukemia
• Disseminated intravascular coagulation

Children

• Croup
• Limp

Endocrine

• Acid base disorder
• Diabetes mellitus
• Rhabdomyolysis
• Thyroid storm
• Adrenal crisis
• Addisonian crisis
• Dehydration
• Diabetic coma
  • Diabetic ketoacidosis
  • Hyperosmolar hyperglycemic state
  • Hypoglycemic coma
• Electrolyte disturbance
• Hepatic encephalopathy
• Hypercalcemic crisis
• Lactic acidosis
• Malnutrition and starvation
• Pheochromocytoma

Environmental

• Accidental hypothermia
• Drowning
• Electric shock and lightning injuries
• Frostbite
• Heat illness
• Radiation injuries
• Scuba diving hazards and dysbarism

Eyes

• Acute angle-closure glaucoma
• Giant-cell arteritis
• Orbital perforation or penetration
• Retinal detachment

Gastrointestinal

• Appendicitis
• Biliary colic
• Cholecystitis
• Gastroenteritis
• Small bowel obstruction
• Crohn's disease
• Peritonitis

Genitourinary

• Acute prostatitis
• Paraphimosis
• Priapism
• Testicular torsion
• Urinary retention
• Kidney failure
• Sexually transmitted infection

Heart and blood vessels

• Acute coronary syndrome
• Air embolism (arterial)
• Aortic aneurysm (ruptured)
  • Abdominal aortic aneurysm
• Aortic dissection
• Bleeding
  • Internal bleeding
• Hypovolemia
• Cardiac arrest
• Cardiac arrhythmia
  • Ventricular fibrillation
  • Supraventricular tachycardia
• Cardiac tamponade
• Deep vein thrombosis
• Heart block
• Heart failure
• Hypertensive emergency
• Infectious endocarditis
• Myocardial infarction (heart attack)
• Myocarditis
• Pericarditis
• Peripheral vascular disease
• Pulmonary embolism
• Valvular heart disease

Infectious disease

• HIV/AIDS
• Cellulitis
• Necrotizing fasciitis
• Osteomyelitis
• Rabies
• Sepsis
• Overwhelming post-splenectomy infection
• Septic arthritis
• Tuberculosis
• Meningitis
• Cholera
• Ear infection
• Gas gangrene
• Lyme disease
• Malaria
• Neutropenic sepsis
• Salmonella poisoning

Inflammatory

• Allergy
• Anaphylaxis
• Arthritis
• Bursitis
• Systemic lupus erythematosus
• Vasculitis

Injury

• Abdominal trauma
• Nose bleed
• Appendicitis
• Ballistic trauma (gunshot wound)
• Bite
• Blunt trauma
• Bone fracture
• Burns
• Chest trauma
• Child abuse
• Domestic abuse
• Facial trauma
• Flail chest
• Foreign body
• Fulminant colitis
• Head injury
• Hyperthermia (including heat stroke or sunstroke)
  • Malignant hyperthermia
• Hypothermia or frostbite
• Intestinal obstruction
• Pancreatitis
• Peritonitis
• Polytrauma
• Ruptured spleen
• Sexual assault
• Spinal disc herniation
• Spinal injury
• Sensorineural hearing loss
• Traumatic brain injury
• Wound

Lungs and airway

• Agonal breathing
• Asphyxia
  • Angioedema
  • Choking
  • Drowning
  • Smoke inhalation
• Asthma
• Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease
• Epiglottitis
• Pleurisy
• Pneumonia
• Pneumothorax
• Pulmonary embolism
• Respiratory failure
• Upper respiratory infection

Nephrology

• Acute kidney injury

Nervous system

• Spinal-cord injury
• Cerebrovascular accident (stroke)
• Delirium
• Neuroleptic malignant syndrome
• Seizures
  • Status epilepticus
  • Epilepsy
• Serotonin syndrome
• Status migrainosus
• Subarachnoid hemorrhage
• Subdural hematoma

Pregnancy

• Ectopic pregnancy
• Eclampsia
• Pre-eclampsia
  • HELLP syndrome
• Fetal distress
• Obstetrical bleeding
• Placental abruption
• Prolapsed cord
• Puerperal sepsis
• Shoulder dystocia
• Uterine rupture

Psychiatric

• Anxiety
• Attempted suicide
• Excited delirium
• Homicidal ideation
• Mood disorder
• Psychomotor agitation
• Psychotic episode
• Somatoform disorder
• Suicidal ideation
• Thought disorder

Skin

• Acute urticaria
• Angioedema
• Erythema multiforme major
• Kasabach–Merritt syndrome
• Toxic epidermal necrolysis

Toxicological

Further information: Chemistry:Toxicology

• Overdose
  • Acetaminophen overdose
  • Aspirin overdose and other NSAIDs
• Poisoning
• Beta blocker toxicity
• Calcium channel blocker toxicity
• Ethylene glycol poisoning
• Food poisoning

Gynecologic

• Gynecologic hemorrhage
• Ovarian torsion
• Sexual assault (rape)

Emergency medical care

• First aid
• Golden hour
• Triage

Critical care

• Acute Care of at-Risk Newborns (ACoRN)
• Airway management
• Care of the Critically Ill Surgical Patient (CCrISP)
• Mechanical ventilation
• Shock
• Resuscitation
  • Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR)
  • Neonatal Resuscitation Program (NRP)
  • Advanced Cardiac Life Support (ACLS)
  • Pediatric Advanced Life Support (PALS)
  • Advanced Trauma Life Support(ATLS)

Life support

• Basic life support (BLS)
• Advanced life support
  • Advanced cardiac life support (ACLS)
  • Advanced trauma life support (ATLS)
    • ABC
    • Pneumothorax
    • Pericardial tamponade
  • Pediatric Advanced Life Support (PALS)

Environmental medicine

Environmental medicine

• High altitude medicine
• Travel medicine
• Mass-gathering medicine

Branches of emergency medicine

• Emergency medical services
• Emergency nursing
• Emergency psychiatry
• International emergency medicine
• Pediatric emergency medicine
• Pre-hospital emergency medicine
• Social emergency medicine

Contributory fields

Emergency medicine is multidisciplinary – due to the diversity of medical emergencies encountered, emergency medicine relies heavily upon the knowledge and procedures of many medical specialties, including:

• Critical care medicine
• Disaster medicine
• Hospice care
• Hyperbaric medicine
• Pain management
• Palliative care
• Sports medicine
• Ultrasound
• Wilderness medicine

Emergency medical system

• Emergency telephone number

Emergency medical services

Emergency medical services

• Ambulance
• Emergency medical dispatch
  • Medical Priority Dispatch System (US)
  • Computer-aided call handling (US)
  • Advanced Medical Priority Dispatch System (UK)
• Emergency medical technician
• Paramedic

Emergency medical facilities

• Emergency department
• Poison control center
• Trauma center

Emergency medical professionals

• Emergency physician
• Emergency nurse
• Emergency medical technician
• Paramedic

Tools and equipment

• Bag valve mask (BVM)
• Chest tube
• Defibrillation (AED
• ICD)
• Electrocardiogram (ECG/EKG)
• Intraosseous infusion (IO)
• Intravenous therapy (IV)
• Tracheal intubation
• Laryngeal tube
• Combitube
• Nasopharyngeal airway (NPA)
• Oropharyngeal airway (OPA)
• Pocket mask

Drugs

• Atropine
• Amiodarone
• Dopamine
• Epinephrine / Adrenaline
• Magnesium sulfate
• Hydralazine

History

• History of the ambulance
• History of emergency medical services

Journals

• Critical Care Medicine
• Intensive Care Medicine
• Military Medicine
• Shock
• Trauma
• Academic Emergency Medicine
• American Journal of Emergency Medicine
• Annals of Emergency Medicine
• Annals of Intensive Care
• Critical Care Clinics
• Emergency Medicine Australasia
• Emergency Medicine Journal
• Indian Journal of Critical Care Medicine
• Injury Prevention
• Journal of Critical Care
• Journal of Emergencies, Trauma, and Shock
• Journal of Emergency Nursing
• Journal of Injury and Violence Research
• Journal of Intensive Care Medicine
• Pediatric Critical Care Medicine
• Prehospital Emergency Care
• The Journal of Emergency Medicine

Organizations

• American Board of Emergency Medicine
• American College of Emergency Physicians
• American Osteopathic Board of Emergency Medicine
• Asian Society for Emergency Medicine
• Australasian College for Emergency Medicine
• British Association for Immediate Care
• Canadian Association of Emergency Physicians
• Emergency Nurses Association
• European Resuscitation Council
• European Society of Emergency Medicine
• International Federation for Emergency Medicine
• International Liaison Committee on Resuscitation
• Resuscitation Council
• Royal College of Emergency Medicine

See also

• Outline of medicine

References

Marx, John (2010). Rosen's emergency medicine: concepts and clinical practice 7th edition. Philadelphia, PA: Mosby/Elsevier. ISBN 978-0-323-05472-0. 

External links

• "www.cfpc.ca". http://www.cfpc.ca/local/files/Education/CoreFamilyMed-ResidencyPrograms.pdf. 
• Emedicine topics
• "WikEM: The Global Emergency Medicine Wiki". http://www.wikem.org.